Integration of thermographic inspection data with BIM for enhanced concrete infrastructure assessment

Abstract

This paper presents a framework that integrates passive infrared thermography (IRT) results with building information modeling (BIM) to improve subsurface delamination inspection in concrete infrastructures. The paper combines solar analysis with BIM for better thermography inspection planning and documents thermographic data on delamination within BIM environment using a semi-automatic AI procedure for delamination identification. The framework was tested on two case studies: one laboratory sample with inserted delaminations and one real-scale concrete structure. As a result, besides the increase in communication related to data visualization and centralization, the volume of the delivered data and the analysis time was reduced through the application of the proposed method. The findings promote better collaboration between the civil engineering and inspection industries, utilizing advanced nondestructive techniques for detecting concrete delamination. This approach improves planning, analysis, visualization, reporting, and data storage for passive IRT inspections, benefiting infrastructure stakeholders and streamlining maintenance management.